Blurt Content Curation | How to Curate in a Proof of Brain World

How you curate is a personal decision and I make no attempt at telling you how to curate.

That said I would like to share my thoughts and experience, and what I think are some best practices when it comes to curating quality content on the Blurt network.

My Point of View Explained

I would like to create a bit of context or perhaps perspective as to where I'm coming from when I write about curation or what I think constitutes quality content. In reality this is all subjective, and that ok, but I would like to give a bit of background behind my methods and madness.

I've created and currently continue to manage an ongoing curation program on another blockchain. No need to mention that project by name right now but participants have delegated stake to my curation program, and in return earn a portion of account rewards. It is trusted that that stake is used to vote only quality content, that is on subject and of value to the overall health and longevity of the category that we're in.

In addition to this in the past year I've had the pleasure and challenge of building a number of digital assets all involving some form of content and SEO marketing. Like many of you, I've created a variety of content, from short shareable bite sized snacks to thoroughly researched and planned 1,500 word SEO optimized pillar posts.

My interest in the digital space has led me to complete 2 digital marketing certificates, one from the Canada Marketing Association and one through Google Garage.

My girlfriend and partner in crime is a content marketing and SEO specialists for a top tier advertising Agency here in the city. We see good content and bad content everyday. We know what good content looks like, and what poorly researched and poorly written content looks like. We've literally seen everything, from works of art to having to correct content from English speaking writers to having to throw out content purchased from content mills in third world countries. I've vetted and verified content creators, and caught plagiarists red handed. It's all part of the experience.

What is content curation?

Content curation is the act of finding written content on the blockchain and upvoting it. The upvote provides a monetary reward to the author and curators, and signals to other network participants that the content is of a certain quality. When done correctly good content can create a snowball affect where curators pile onto the content in order to further reward the creator but also earn a higher curation reward.

We call this proof of brain because currently there ins't an algorithm that can determine the level of quality, this requires a human. Yeah, still relevant!

Here's the thing, if you're not curating by using a few key principles and a little common sense than you aren't any better than a simple bot that can upvote content with no thought involved.

What to Look For When Curating

Curation is an evolution, as more quality content creators come online to the blurt network we will see the standard in quality content increase.

That doesn't mean that we must accept lower quality content now, it's more or less a good time to sharpen our curation skills and watch the landscape unfold.

• Observe the length of post - Longer posts require more time to research, plan, and write. As a general guideline a 1,000 word post could take someone an hour to write. A 250 word post could take someone 5 minutes to bang out. Should they be worth the same vote? Consider providing a larger vote to a lengthy and well organized piece of content.
• Is filler content being used - In relation to length of post, sometimes you'll see a writer use what is known as a stream of consciousness. These sentences aren't thought out and often don't provide much value other than to increase the overall word count and mask an otherwise shallow piece of content.
• Overall depth of subject matter - The best content will not only cover one main subject but will often cover a few other sub topics that provide further context or knowledge to the main subject. This is also a common tactic when writing SEO optimized content. Keep an eye out for content that builds a holistic overall body of knowledge on a subject.
• Grammar, spelling, and formatting - No one is perfect but if a piece of content has multiple grammatical errors or spelling mistakes it's essentially spam. Anyone can spew up a thousand words with no care for the use of correct spelling, which is built into the browser these days! Bonus points for aesthetically pleasing formatting. This can include breaking up large paragraphs for increased readability, adding pictures and possibly video to help tell the story. Again this takes time and effort, to search relevant photos, find a well done video that is on topic, and review the formatting. Surely this type of quality content is worth more to the network that quickly assembled and poorly formatted content.
• Has the content already been curated - Often there's nothing wrong with giving a large vote to a good piece of content, even if it's already received significant votes. Do the network a favour and use you best judgement here. If the content is low or average quality and already has been voted, maybe consider moving on to spot that quality piece that hasn't received many votes yet. If you are curating with a Blurt sponsored account there are likely rules to follow around this subject.
• Spotting plagiarism - If you suspect a plagiarist, one of the easiest checks is to throw a few different sentences into google. It only takes a minute and you'll quickly learn if the content has been lifted from another source or not. Plagiarized content has tells, like does this author normally produce content of this quality. Is the writing similar to what you've seen in previous posts, or has it dramatically improved. Sometimes I'll see a content creator who's English is relatively poor in much of the content they create, then out of nowhere there's a post with excellent English, it's suspect.
• Links to internal and external sources - Linking to domains with authority is an SEO tactic, but it helps here on the blockchain to demonstrate that information has been compiled from credible sources. It strengthens your argument, and provides social proof that you know what you're talking about. If you help the readers with a little bit of fact checking along the way, or a source for your latest breaking news, that's worth some bonus points. Some authors have a good catalog of posts are able to link to other articles they've published that are relevant. This adds value.

Surviving a Proof of Brain World

Hopefully this has been helpful to those not familiar with content curation or those just looking for more information on the subject.

The overall health of the network depends on our ability to use our brains to determine what is quality and what is not. Without this our system doesn't work, so wear your curation badge with pride! With much power comes much responsibility, in a proof of brain world.

Thanks for stopping by,

@agr8buzz

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If you find this content helpful please consider voting for my witness here, thank you.